Family background
William Sinclair was born 7 March 1887 in Dornoch, Scotland, son of George Sinclair and his wife Margaret Mills Sutherland, nee Bain. He married (1) Janet Fargie Simpson (1887-1935) in Leith, Scotland on 19 November 1909 and at the time he was a railway shunter. They had no children. The date of Sinclair’s arrival in Australia is uncertain but he was a contractor from Petersham, when he enlisted in the Australian Imperial Force on 12 October 1915. Following his wife’s death in 1935 he married (2) Jane Russell Thornburn at St Stephen’s Presbyterian Church on 7 September 1937. William Sinclair died of heart disease at Greenacre on 15 October 1959 and was cremated. He lived at 45 Union Street, Dulwich Hill.
Occupation & interests
William Sinclair was a box manufacturer. He enlisted in the Australian Imperial Force (AIF) on 12 October 1915 and served in the Royal Field Artillery which embarked in December for Egypt. He returned to Australia in May 1919. On 7 July 1925 Sinclair together with W R Kiel and R S Bales formed the Waterloo Box Co Ltd with a capital of £5000 in £1 shares. The object being to conduct business as saw millers, box makers, timber merchants etc on premises in McEvoy Street, Waterloo. This business continued until 16 May 1936 when at an extraordinary general meeting a resolution was passed ’that is has been proved to the satisfaction of this meeting that the Company cannot by reason of its liabilities continue its business and that it is advisable to wind up the same, and accordingly that the Company be wound up voluntarily’
Community activity
William Sinclair was a justice of the peace (JP)
Local government service
William Sinclair was an alderman on Waterloo Council in 1932-36. He resigned in February 1936.
References
‘Election Results’, The Sydney Morning Herald 5 January 1932, p. 3, http://trove.nla.gov.au/newspaper/article/16831572
J. B. Hopley, ‘Sinclair, William (1887–1959)’, Australian Dictionary of Biography, National Centre of Biography, Australian National University, http://adb.anu.edu.au/biography/sinclair-william-8436/text14829, published first in hardcopy 1988, accessed online 23 November 2016.